Quiche

I LOVE quiche...and have for years!  When I was very young....probably early teens, my Grandmother lived in Parkersburg, WV and every Saturday we would go shopping and then have a super fabulous lunch...and then shop some more. :) I guess, looking back, I can blame HER for my obsessive shopping disorder!!  Occasionally we would have lunch at the cafe at Stone and Thomas and I thought I was pretty darn special because of it.  It was there that I first had quiche and it's been a love-affair ever since:)

Quiche is a great thing to have in your cooking repertoire for several reasons:

1) It's Yummy! And what makes it yummy is that you can put pretty much whatever you want in it!  It's a great "clean-out-the-fridge" dish.  That is, whatever you got - is what goes in it.  Veggies, meat --- you name it.  The only must haves in my opinion...Eggs (Duh) - Cheese (Gruyere) - Heavy Cream and half and half - and nutmeg.  (I guess a pie shell) Everything else is up to you. :)

2)  It's Easy!  Mix it up, throw in a frozen pie crust and poof! It's done:)

3)  It Can be Made in Advance!  It can be made ahead of your event, stuck in the fridge and forgot about:)

Now in terms of being a purist......yeeeeeaaaaa - I'm not! --when it comes to the crust:)  Although homemade pie crust is one of those things I'm determined to master one of these days!  But for now, I see no reason not to use the WONDERFUL frozen ones:)

So for this quiche I began by frying up some bacon.  In actuality we could stop here and I'd be a happy girl - but for the sake of this blog I'll keep going.  :)  Fry the bacon on medium heat until nice and crispy - remove and let it drain on a paper towel.  How much....eh - up to you and the type of bacon (whether or not it's really "meaty").  But I'd say pack the bottom of a skillet and go from there.  If you have extra left over.....DANG - I'll guess you'll have to eat it!

In the same skillet, saute up some some onions and garlic (like any good dish!).  I'd go with 1/2 cup diced sweet onions and 1-2 cloves of garlic.  Add a little s/p and saute on medium heat - constantly stirring to get a good carmelization on the the onions.  Dump the entire skillet into a sieve to drain off the bacon grease and set aside.  Save your skillet and all the yummy stuff in the bottom --- you're gonna need it. 

For this quiche I decided to go with the bacon, spinach and cheese -- classic.  So I prepped my cheese (grated) and rinsed my spinach.  Give the spinach a rough chop and throw it in the skillet with the bacon left overs....on very low heat wilt the spinach for about 30 seconds and remove from the heat or dump it onto a plate or something...set it aside.

For the eggs, I use 6 large eggs cracked into a bowl.  I use an electric mixer to whip them up for just about 30 seconds or so on high.  You want them whipped, but not over whipped.  Once the eggs are whipped - throw it all together.  Eggs, cheese, spinach, bacon and onions. (I crunch up the bacon in my hands).  Make sure your onions are drained of a crazy excess of bacon grease...but some is OKEEDOKEE. 

Give everything a good stir and dump it in the pie shell.  I bake it at 425 for about 40-50 minutes..or until a toothpick or inserted knife comes out clean. 

Then you can either eat that sucker, or cover it in saran wrap and stick in the fridge.  It really is easy and will save you valuable cooking time in the morning, especially if you have quests!  Heck I made it and blogged about it and I'm at the beach:)

Happy eatin'

Jodie